100 PR People Worth Following on Twitter

PLEASE NOTE: this list was created as an experiment for research purposes at a specific moment in time. It is not a long standing recommendation, ranking, or blanket validation of skill sets and level of experience.

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When I speak at events and the topic of Twitter comes up, people often ask me how to build their streams with interesting peers to follow. I build mine starting from all the bloggers I knew first, then looked at the profiles of those they replied to (@reply), then added those who participated in planned chats and conversations.

While there is no steadfast rule on who to follow and what ratio of followers to have - yes, I realize I'm busting another Twitter myth - the noise/signal ration in your stream will depend on the messages of those you follow. So follow wisely and never be afraid of unfollowing someone. Twitter is the most casual of all social networks - the barrier to entry is quite low - and it has the potential of being one of the most useful - when you're not afraid of meeting new people quickly.

The Twitter list of suggested people to follow is not exactly helpful to businesses that are working on learning more about how you do public relations in new media. Since looking up a lot of profiles is hard work, and Colleen just left a comment calling me a collector of people, I thought I'd show you one of my collections on Twitter - that of professionals who do PR right. By that I mean they are helpful and pay it forward.

I'm not going to rank the list, because some of these professionals serve a niche segment or a specific industry. Instead, I will list them in alphabetical order. Some of these people may not meet your definition of Twitter "famous". I chose them because they participate and contribute, on Twitter and to the profession, not because they have a known name - you should do the same.

I was very surprised that many who write amazing PR blogs are not on Twitter, yet or have not thought of adding the Twitter link for people to follow them. You also probably guessed that my definition of PR is true public relations, and not just press releases, right?

Who did I forget? Let me know in the comments. Also, if you have a better description of your job, company, or title, add it here.

UPDATE: Neville Hobson created a TweepML list from this one so you can follow the whole list, or as many as you wish to follow from this list.